SHARJAH // The death of two young girls, killed as family and friends returned from a birthday party in Al Ain, still haunts Shagufta Usman 16 years after the accident.
“It was, and is, the most painful incident of our life; we lost two beautiful girls, one was 18 and the other girl only 14 and they lost their lives through no fault of their own,” Mrs Usman said.
While the younger girl died at the scene, the older was in ICU for a week before succumbing to internal injuries.
“Even so many years later, thinking of those moments makes me cry. It is impossible to forget because the memories come back in an instant.”
Mrs Usman, a marketing consultant who works in Sharjah, was headed back to Dubai in September 2000 after the party. There were eight passengers packed into the sedan, including her two young sons and three children of family friends. The parents had gone back to Dubai earlier. None of the passengers, except for the driver, also a family friend, were wearing seat belts.
The car swerved a few times as the driver fiddled with the radio, then hit a pole. All the passengers were thrown from the car except for Mrs Usman’s husband, who was weighed down by an icebox on his lap.
Mrs Usman and the 18-year-old were taken to hospital by helicopter. “I was told in hospital later about the deaths, but I was in total denial. I did not want to accept it,” said Mrs Usman, who has had seven operatons on her left leg and will require a knee replacement.
It took her older son, who was six at the time of the accident, a fortnight to regain consciousness. He suffered a dislocated shoulder and internal bleeding that required his spleen be removed. Her three-year-old son dislocated his hip and suffered head injuries. Her husband suffered a hairline spine fracture that still causes nagging pain.
The driver suffered minor injuries and was jailed until he paid blood money for the girls’ death.
Safety has since become a family priority with seat belts a must for all passengers.
Mrs Usman tried to keep in touch with the family friends whose daughters died, but one moved back to Pakistan and the other rebuffed her approaches. “The guilt is too much because the girls were travelling with us,” she said. “All of us were scarred badly because we were so close. One family didn’t want anything to do with us, they really blamed us for the accident.”
She retells the story so others can learn from their mistakes.
“People must be educated that the car is just a piece of machinery, it must be driven carefully,” she said. “The trauma we suffered was massive.”
The agony of witnessing a fatal accident is permanent.
“Injuries sustained to the brain and bone can take months and years to heal,” said Dr Nithyanandan Ramakrishnan, from Medeor hospital.
“But the impact if children die is lifelong. The death of a child can drive families apart.”
rtalwar@thenational.ae
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- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
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What are the regulations?
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The biog
Favourite book: Animal Farm by George Orwell
Favourite music: Classical
Hobbies: Reading and writing
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
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Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Race card
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
6pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-2 Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 2,200m
6.30pm: Liwa Oaisi Group 2 (PA) Dh300,000 1,400m
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 1,600m
The National selections: 5pm: Flit Al Maury, 5.30pm: Sadah, 6pm: RB Seqondtonone, 6.30pm: RB Money To Burn, 7pm: SS Jalmood, 7.30pm: Dalaalaat
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UJDA CHAMAN
Produced: Panorama Studios International
Directed: Abhishek Pathak
Cast: Sunny Singh, Maanvi Gagroo, Grusha Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla
Rating: 3.5 /5 stars
Racecard
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The%20specs%20
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Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
